Is Tiger the Best Ever?

Tiger Woods.

Sixty-six tournament victories and 14 major championships in less than 12 years on tour. He wins nearly 30% of the tournaments he enters. He makes seemingly every clutch putt he's ever had to make.

He's never, ever lost a major after leading or being tied for the lead going into the final round. 14-0.

His name rising up the leaderboard strikes fear into everyone ahead of him. His gallery's roars let the other contenders know what he's doing, causing fellow competitors to quiver and shake.

He commands millions of dollars in appearance fees alone, and will be sport's first "Billion Dollar Man".

He's being called the best golfer ever.

But is he?

He's still 5 major wins away from eclipsing Jack Nicklaus's record of 18 major titles. He's still 8 total PGA tour victories shy of Nicklaus's 73 wins, and still well short of Sam Snead's record 82 victories.

Yet, a lot of national media types and even some current and former professional tour players say he's already the best of all time.

Our society these days, pop culture, if you will, has consistently said that what's happening during this particular era is unmatched, whether you're talking about sports, entertainment, music, anything.

Most people's point of reference obviously begins from when they were born, and the vast majority of today's young golfers and media types call Woods the best ever.

They didn't see Nicklaus play, and mostly remember him from his victory in the 1986 Masters, when he won at age 46.

Nicklaus and Woods each have dominated their sport in similar fashion, from their major victories, to their ability to intimidate their competition, to being able to bomb the golf ball off the tee.

The difference though, is in the competition they faced.

Nicklaus had Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, and Lee Trevino early on, and then Johnny Miller Tom Weiskopf, and most notably Tom Watson later. The number of majors they've won all told, is 32.

Tiger Woods had Ernie Els and Vijay Singh early on, and Phil Mickelson and Padraig Harrington currently.

They've won only 12 combined majors.

The major difference, other than the majors? Well, one is the number of so-called competitors. Tiger has is roughly two-less than Nicklaus did.

But the biggest and most important difference is that Nicklaus's contemporaries actually stole several majors from Jack. Trevino beat Nicklaus head-to-head twice. Watson did it three times. Both Palmer and Player beat Nicklaus in majors as well.

How many have Tiger's so-called rivals stolen from him? Exactly zero. Zip. Nada.

They've won during the Tiger era, but not head-to-head against him when Tiger had a chance to win. Two of Harrington's 3 majors were won when Tiger was on the shelf with his knee injury. That's not to take anything from Harrington, because he couldn't help it if Tiger's knee wouldn't cooperate.

If Tiger doesn't play another year after this one, and even if he were to win the next three majors this year before bowing out, he still wouldn't get to Jack's majors record.

And, therefore, wouldn't qualify in my mind as the best of all time.

Tiger still has to go out there and do it. Until he does, Nicklaus holds that well-deserved title as "The Best of All Time".